of an old Irish morning — ? on this fine day, on this morning with "typically Irish" weather.

hayfoot, strawfoot — "left, right!" as in military marching. (("in allusion to the alleged use of hay and straw to enable a rustic recruit to distinguish the right foot from the left" – OED.)) stand and freeze — punning "stand at ease". ((military jocular – Partridge HS.)) at the steady — punning "at the ready", the military order.

me old sweat — my old comrade. ((old sweat: "an old soldier" military – Partridge HS.)) me old heart — my old friend. ((heart: "used as a term of endearment" – OED.))

Pete'n'Marysburg — Pietermaritzburg, city in Natal province, South Africa. The 2nd battalion RDF had been stationed here since 1897. October fourteenth ... — hostilities in the Boer War had started two days earlier, October 12 1899.

setting off for Ladysmith — Ladysmith, a town in the interior of Natal province, was the scene of the first British losses in the Boer War.

take the stick — be the smartest soldier on parade. ((get the stick: "to be, as the most smartly turned out man, excused guard duty and made the guard's orderly" Regular Army colloquial – Partridge HS.)) (("for it was now his high ambition to 'get the stick'—in other words to be dismissed from guard-duty as reward for being the best-turned-out man on parade" – Percival Christopher Wren, Snake and Sword, 1914.

be the cut of you — by the look of you. ((cut: "appearance" – Slanguage.))

jawing — chattering. ((Partridge HS.))

Hurrah, hurrah for Ireland! — from the regimental song of the Dublin Fusiliers. (("Listening, mayhap, to the old march-past of the Old Toughs, the Dublin Fusiliers, and shouting out the song himself, Hurrah, hurrah for Ireland, and th' Dublin fu-u-sa-leers!" – O'Casey 3.)) In the 1960s The Dubliners recorded a somewhat updated version. ♫♫

Burlington Burt — from the music hall song "Burlington Bertie", composed by Harry B. Norris, 1900, performed by the male-impersonator Vesta Tilley. It concerns an aristocratic idler who pursues a life of leisure in the West End of London. The song was parodied in 1914 by the far better known "Burlington Bertie from Bow". ♫♫

touch — ? soft touch. ((touch: "the obtaining of money from a person, e.g. by a loan" – Partridge HS.))

in tow — accompanying, following him. ((OED.))

cross-patch, draw the latch ... — from the nursery rhyme (("Cross patch, draw the latch, / Sit by the fire and spin; / Take a cup and drink it up, / Then call your neighbours in" – Brewer 1898.)) ((cross-patch: "a cross, ill-tempered person. Usually applied to a girl or woman" – OED.))

first shake of the bag — ? his wife's first child. (the idiom usually refers to a woman's last child.) ((shake of the bag: "runt of the litter; unprepossessing person" – Slanguage.)) ((shake of the bag: "a woman's last child" – DILR.)) (("This had been the shake of the bag, and she knew she would never have another child" – O'Casey 1.))

mustard — ? echoic of "bastard". nettlebed — (("a traditional put-off used since the early 17th century when children ask where babies come from" – Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore, 2000. (("In folklore little girls come from the parsley-bed, little boys from the nettle-bed" – Partridge.))

baldy peelo — (("jeer at child with head shaved on account of ringworm, etc" – Slanguage.)) the itch — (("any of various skin disorders, such as scabies, marked by intense irritation and itching" – Stedman's Medical Dictionary.))

the lend of a loan — the habit of borrowing. Common phrase in Ireland. (("it's what I wanted, my lady, is the lend of a loan of two-and-sixpence" – Anna Maria Hall, Stories of the Irish Peasantry, 1840.))

pricked their palms ... — the ceremony of becoming blood brothers (("two individuals who vow mutual fidelity and trust by a ceremony involving the mingling of each other's blood" – American Heritage Dictionary.))